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Thursday, February 12, 2009

FO: Koolhaas

Yay for hats! This is by far the most beautiful, awesome hat I have ever knit! I love the texture and it was fun to knit -- not so easy you get bored, but not so complicated that you can't work on it while you watch TV, etc. This is definitely the first of many!

project detailspattern: "Koolhaas" by Jared Flood, Interweave Knit Gifts 2007, available for purchase online at the Knitting Daily pattern store for $4.50needles: size 5 and 7 circulars and size 7 dpnsgauge: try as I might, I just can't count out a gauge in the lattice pattern!yarn used: 132 yards (about 70% of the skein)finished size: about 15'' in diameter (on brim), 8 inches tallduration: January 24 - February 11, 2009
cost: about $2.00, plus $4.50 for the pattern

notes

I don't think this was a good yarn for this project. The color is beautiful, but it's a heather and that means it is kind of furry. It's not the kiss of death, but I think a solid colored yarn that gives more stitch definition will really make things pop!

When I joined to knit in the round I did that thing where you switch the places of the first and last stitches. I feel like this made the join less obvious, but it might not have made a difference.

I used a random needle tip from my Boye set as a cable needle. This made everything go so much more smoothly. I was hoping to try cabling without a needle on this project, but I think the stitches were pulled too tightly on the circular for it to work - they always unravelled themselves.

The pattern calls for size 6 & 8 needles, I goofed and used 5 & 7. Everything worked out okay, but next time I think I'll go with the recommended needle sizes.

I originally did 4 pattern repeats (for the women's size) but the hat ended up being too short for my liking, so I frogged back and did 5 repeats. Perhaps if I use the correct needle size this won't be necessary.

On all of the knit stitches on this hat you knit through the back loop and I'm pretty sure that I forgot to do that on a bunch of random stitches, just because it is so counter-intuitive. It still looks good, but maybe it isn't as neat as it could have been. Next time I will be more vigilant about it and see if it makes a difference.

Yeah, I don't think it's worth it to swatch this one. Hats are pretty forgiving with sizing as long as you make it into the general ballpark. In fact, I've read blogs of knitters who just knit a whole a hat as their gauge swatch for a larger project that will be knitted in the round.